I'm new to Arduino but I have programmed PICs and PCs in the past so I have reasonable experience.

In contrast to some other Forums I follow (JRuby programming and model railways) this Forum is really busy. That means that a question I asked yesterday morning is now on page 4. I did get some helpful information in response but I suspect there may be more available from some other forum readers. However I'd be very surprised if it is is ever seen again. It has been completely swamped (just like every other question) by dozens of newer different questions. ...

Robin,

The problems are -

A. Too many of the same questions get asked over and over. And over. They need to come up with a way to screen these same questions because most new members will not search for answers. Answering how transistors work and so on can best be left to the myriad of other very good resources that already exist.

B. The forum is over-boarded - this is a classic case study of trying to take on way too much for one forum. They are trying for a be-all and end all for any and every possible type of project anyone can imagine (and school assignments for students). They should support the Arduino, it's intrinsic capabilities, and the software. They should leave to other forums the support of the myriad and sundry projects that people might want to build.

I guess one has to decide what they would want the forum best to strive for, an archive of 'approved' solutions and instructions for easy access without redundancy or alternate viewpoints.

Or if one would rather see it as a near real time interaction of people asking questions and people trying to provide answers. I would lean towards the latter. I'm more interested in the people side of the forum rather then it's possible academic value as some kind of repository.

I think what the support staff is trying to do is admirable. But it's just too much for one forum.

When I got my Arduino, I joined this forum like I do other forums for other interests, to follow along with the posts and so on. I soon found out this was a futile effort here. If I checked in at 0800, by the end of the day there would be 15 - 20 PAGES of posts. Impossible to "follow along" with members, get to know them, and their interests. It's not so much a small community as a giant airport terminal with strangers every day I've never seen before. I don't do it anymore. I am over the hump now as far as the Arduino goes for what I need it for - I can use it for what I need for my model railroad. If I need to learn a new function I just teach myself or try to search the forum. But as far as trying to keep up with the community members - it can't be done. And that's a shame.

My analogy for this place would be this -

You are the producer of a certain popular model of cordless drill. You set up a forum for it to answer questions regarding it's capabilities. Except before you know it you are not just helping people learn how to properly use it to drill holes and drive screws, and how to properly charge it's batteries, you suddenly have boards set up for help with constructing dog houses, multi-level outdoor decks, summer cottages, and complete two-story homes.

Not only that, you are getting questions about how to use the drill to power go-carts and how to remove the motor from the drill to use in a home made blender. Also questions about how much current the helper LED light takes and how one could convert and connect a gas generator to drive the motor of the drill directly for more power, and how to mod it for use in space travel to the Space Station and beyond.

And what about nuclear power for it? Oh and don't forget the joke board too.

Too much, too much ...

It's a drill. Support the drill. Leave the projects the drill can be used for to other venues.

It's normal now to get 20+ pages of new posts in the morning and probably another 15 by the evening, I've pretty much given up on clicking "unread posts" and now have 8 bookmarks that read the unread posts in the 8 boards I have the most interest in. Even then I usually only look at the Due board and 1 or 2 others.

As for finding the unanswered posts you can click on the "Replies" heading, that will sort by replies, but only in the current unread set______Rob

I have developed a management strategy that may be useful for others...

FIRST...I have discovered that my "members" page (click the link at the top of the screen and then search for yourself) has an option to "show posts" which lists all of the posts I have made and includes links the the topics where they were made. This allows me to follow up on any comments I have made without having to remember where I made them.

To save myself the trouble of searching for myself on the members page I have stored an external link to that page in a "mylinks.html" text file where I have lots of other links to websites that I use - I find it easier to use for regular stuff than the Opera browser bookmarks.

SECOND...I limit myself to the Project Guidance and Programming Questions areas and I am careful to click "Mark Read" each time when I am finished browsing.

If there were useful tags on posts I would probably be tempted to follow one or two of those as well.

...R

Two or three hours spent thinking and reading documentation solves most programming problems.

Not only is "general electronics" a topic for an entire forum, there are already resources and forums that exist that are as good or better than this one for general electrons support. The internet is flooded with that kind of help. There is no logical reason for this support forum to help people with general electronics when it's being covered in a hundred other forums and websites. I just looked at the recent general elec. posts - pull-down resistors, transistors, breadboards, schematic symbols, relays, yada, yada, yada - same things day-in and day-out, all too much and off- topic for an Arduino support forum.

^^^ Why are they interested in adding all that burden and traffic to a support forum for the Arduino? It detracts from the core purpose here - helping people understand how the Arduino works - not how to solve any and every possible thing anyone can dream up.

If those boards were removed, and there was a need for that type of support community, I guarantee people will start those forums, and concentrate on those specific topics.

Now will anything change here. Probably not. It's too late, it's like a large corporation - too big to turn and I see no open mindset for improvement or change here.

I like it, that its all together. Otherwise I would need to register for an electronics board and for a programming board and for a design and arts board.

I guess you just dont follow the stuff you dont care about.

Granted I have not been on here in a while and I can imagine with the marketing push I am experiencing here in Europe (all of a sudden you can actually buy Arduinos in stores...) that the forum has recently grown.

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Or if one would rather see it as a near real time interaction of people asking questions and people trying to provide answers. I would lean towards the latter. I'm more interested in the people side of the forum rather then it's possible academic value as some kind of repository.

I agree with what retrolefty said here. I find it interesting and sometimes very rewarding when I can help some kid from the US complete a project for science fair or if I can help someone in Australia mod his car. Thats why I like helping here. And thats much more fun than some knowledge base.

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Impossible to "follow along" with members, get to know them, and their interests. It's not so much a small community as a giant airport terminal with strangers every day I've never seen before.

I disagree. If you hang out here for longer, you will meet many characters and you *do* get to "know" them. Graynomad here is from australia and has more interests than I thought is possible (check out his website). Retrolefty has been programming machines since the seventies and has a ton of interesting stories to share. PaulS is a trove of knowledge and completely unfriendly and grumpy (but always helpful). GrumpyMike is not as grumpy as he pretends he is and used to publish a computing magazine back in the day when the stuff we where doing was new. (haha hope this does not make me appear as a stalker. I read the forum a lot more than I post I think... )

So anyway. My point is, this is a place I like to come to when I have nothing else to do. I learn a lot her and I try to help out when and where I can. I think some of the problems you guys describe either are new, or are problems because you have not been around for that long.

I'm fundamentally opposed to the kind of reforms proposed by "modeller".

I don't want a perfect micromanaged toy world.

I like the chaos and sheer unexpectedness of the forum as it is; it's like a rummage sale, or a parts bin, and someone with a completely different background and life experience will challenge your thinking.Hell, software and hardware design requires rigid, methodical thinking, so it's good to come somewhere where you can encounter other people with a different outlook.

I don't want compartmentalisation.

If you want/need an Arduino forum just for toy trains, start one, but don't stunt the growth of this one.

Yeah too much detail will only end up complicating... But maybe tag posts, like you do with youtube , as an example...Given the situation of having already several subtopics, and some quite varied as we know, would probably help a bit, without being too complicated.Specially if there is additional hardware/ Protocols associated with it...